Brookfield to use new technology in race to build Manhattan West development

Brookfield Office Properties intends to get a leg up on competitor the Related Companies by using bridge-building technology to cover a 65-foot railroad trench at the site of its new Manhattan West development, Bloomberg News reported. Construction at the site requires covering tracks that shuttle about 100,000 people each weekday into and out of Pennsylvania Station.

The technology has never previously been used with a building project, and would save two years of labor and cut costs for a platform in half to about $300 million, Brookfield told Bloomberg.

Brookfield is competing for tenants with Related’s Hudson Yards, among other new office properties slated for completion mid-decade.

Platforms on the west side “are a big megillah,” said Joseph Harbert, COO of Cushman & Wakefield. “Once those platforms are up, that place is going to be on fire… If they can get it up faster and at a lower cost, that stuff is going to rent.” [Bloomberg]